DENMARK

What if Copenhagen's metro system could teach you about the world?

Metropolis is Dreamtown's flagship engagement project in Denmark — an interactive learning universe that connects each of Copenhagen's 17 City Ring metro stations to one of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals. At each station, students step off the train and into a learning journey that links local sustainability initiatives in Copenhagen with global stories of young people tackling the same challenges in cities across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

The concept is simple and deep at the same time. A class picks an SDG. They start in the classroom with an inspiring film about a young person working on that goal in Kampala, Nairobi, Freetown, or Dhaka. Then they ride the metro to the corresponding station and use the Woop app to navigate a challenge route through the neighbourhood — encountering social enterprises, urban farms, creative spaces, and community initiatives along the way. Back in the classroom, they design their own response.

Developed over three phases since 2020 in partnership with KVUC (Copenhagen Adult Education Center), Metropolis has engaged over 1,500 students and 50 teachers across seven high schools in Copenhagen. The learning materials are co-designed with teachers and students to fit directly into Danish curriculum requirements — covering subjects from economics and biology to philosophy and design.

Metropolis explores all 17 SDGs through an urban lens for a global audience. The films, articles, and educational resources it produces are designed to travel far beyond Copenhagen — making it Dreamtown's primary engagement product for audiences who want to understand how the world's biggest challenges play out in cities, and how young people are responding.

Teachers shape how the next generation sees the world. If the stories they tell are incomplete, the worldview they pass on will be too.

Gatekeepers for Global Engagement is Dreamtown's project to reach young people through the educators who influence them most. Running from October 2024 to July 2026, the project works with two groups: 225 teacher trainees at University College Absalon and 225 secondary school teachers across Copenhagen's high schools — equipping them with tools, methods, and perspectives to bring global development into the classroom in ways that are constructive, nuanced, and action-oriented.

The project builds directly on Metropolis. Teachers and trainees experience the Metropolis learning universe firsthand, then learn to facilitate it with their own classes. Through action-learning workshops, guided city expeditions, and network events with partner Ungdomsbyen (the Danish hub of UNESCO's Associated Schools Network), educators move from observers of global issues to active facilitators of youth engagement.

The ambition is multiplication. A teacher who owns the agenda doesn't stop when the project ends — they carry it into every classroom, every year, reaching hundreds of students over a career. Gatekeepers documents best practices through a research study with Absalon and a campaign film, and culminates in a Learning Festival at Demokratigaragen bringing together teachers, students, and Dreamtown's international partners.

Because the fastest way to reach a generation is through the people who teach them.